PDI Battles are a regular feature of our annual programme. They involve PDIs submitted by members being drawn against each other at random, using a computer programme, and members' voting (without knowing the identity of the photographer) for the winner of each 1:1 competition. In each case, the loser is eliminated from the competition. The competition then progresses to Quarter Final, Semi-Final and Final stages until a winner is eventually declared. We consider this to be a bit of fun rather than a more serious competition. The difference on this occasion, however, was that the images were all taken with mobile phones and not our usual cameras. 
 
The competition progressed, with images eliminated until the final was reached. The PDIs in the Final were 'The Platters' by Colin Livingstone, a serial winner of CCC competitions, and Ray Thompson. The members present voted for the winning image by Ray Thompson which was titled 'Colour Run'.

​The view after the competition was that the images, despite being taken by mobile phones, were of a good quality and that it had been an enjoyable Battle. 
 
Following the Battle, members were shown a twelve-and-a-half-minute Audio Visual presentation entitled "Australian Journey" which had been produced by a collaboration between Ray Barnes and Peter Moody. The plan is to show the AV when we visit Morpeth on 11th March on the second leg of an arrangement for exchange visits this season with Morpeth Camera Club. Positive feedback was received about the AV, particularly the music which had been chosen for it.  
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary

​A luthier is a person who builds or repairs stringed instruments such as guitars or violins. Our speaker on the evening of 23rd January, Dave Best (LRPS), gave us a very interesting and enjoyable talk entitled The Luthier's Tale. Dave's style was very relaxed, engaging, clear and reassuringly positive and confident. His talk was in two parts. 
 
In the first section, Dave exhibited a range of his photographs, often in black and white to minimise the inevitable "busyness" of such images, of rock and folk guitarists, violinists etc on stage. There was even a photograph of an artist playing a hurdy gurdy, an instrument which many of us had never seen before. Dave has attended many rock and folk concerts over the years and some of the photographs were of well-known artists such as Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Harley, Louden Wainwright 111 (father of Rufus and Martha), Richard Thompson and Steeleye Span. We all appreciated the quality of Dave's photographs - particularly our own resident gig photographer, Paul Dunn.
 
The second section of Dave's talk was about a project he had undertaken between 2008 and 2010 with a Newcastle-based luthier called Nigel Forster (Nigel now lives on the Gold Coast in Australia). Nigel was originally from Hexham and learned his trade from Stephan Sobel, a luthier from Whitley Chapel. Nigel had contacted Dave regarding a book he wanted to produce about how he went about his work, and he wanted Dave, whose work he had seen on Dave's website, to take the photographs for the book. Dave showed us many of his photographs, and showed us the book resulting from the project, which high-lighted the quality and painstaking nature of Nigel's work as a luthier.
 
Nigel produced a range of guitar types, mandolins, bouzouki's etc to order and spent weeks building and perfecting them. He used maple for his sound boards and spent an inordinate amount of time and patience perfecting the instruments, so that they met the exact requirements of the customers. Dave believed that Mark Knopfler owned a couple of guitars which he had ordered from Nigel. It was fascinating to see, through Dave's excellent photographs, the detailed work which goes into making top quality, bespoke instruments.
 
Dave received an enthusiastic round of applause, and we all agreed that it had been an enjoyable and entertaining evening.
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary  

Tonight’s (16th Jan) 2nd Open Print Competition was judged by Jim Welsh, from Blyth Photographic Society, who provided constructive criticism on each entry, pointing out the positives as well as the negatives on each image.
Due to the low number of entries the colour and mono prints were combined with Jim awarding the top five places and five highly commended images, although Jim said there were a number of images that were close to being highly commended.

Jules                                                                             Colin Livingstone
Cherry Blossom at Grangetown Cemetery                 Bob Finlay
No.50 on the Kielder Rally                                          Bob Finley
Going Home to Nest                                                    Colin Livingstone
Misty Morning at Tigh Mor                                           Ray Barnes
 
Highly Commended
Going to Greggs                                                          Colin Livingstone
Nutty Snack                                                                 Ray Barnes
Etive Mor                                                                     Paul Dunn
Pillars                                                                           Peter Moody
Autumn Reflections                                                     Ray Barnes

​
​​Paul Dunn
(Print Competition Secretary)

​It was a cold evening for our first meeting of 2025 and Colin Livingstone led a session about photographing and focus stacking. Focus stacking is a technique designed to achieve a deep depth of field by blending, or stacking, a number of images together. Each stacked shot is focused on a different spot, so the combined depth of field is deeper than the depth of field produced by any of the individual images. The combined result is a much sharper image throughout. The technique can be used in many genres of photography, from landscape to macro photography and optimal microscopy. The number of images stacked can vary from 2 or 3 to, quite literally, hundreds. It's essential to use a tripod for photo stacking.  

​Colin had set up 2 scenes, illuminated by LED lights, which he used to demonstrate the technique. Members were given the opportunity to try it out using their own cameras.

​The next step is to stack the images using appropriate software. Using a projector and screen, Colin showed us how he stacks his images on Photoshop. It's a technique which requires some know-how and perseverance but is not too difficult to learn and practice. Although Colin uses Photoshop, other software packages, such as Affinity Photo and Luminar Neo, can be used. 
 
The final step was to clear the frost off our cars and a number of us headed off to the pub for the first drinks of the New Year together.
 
Ray Barnes
Programme Secretary